Gold Rush

After almost half a season rebuilding from the ashes,

The Hoffmans have a shot at real gold.

Yeah! We got ourselves a tiger by the tail.

But trouble with a Little Red...

I can't run any faster, I'm trying.

..forces Todd and Dave to gamble on a deal...

Todd's life savings, my life savings.

..For one of the biggest wash plants in the Klondike.

Oh, this thing is huge.

Parker Schnabel's 2,000 ounce season goal is in huge trouble.

Why around here does it always have to be worst case scenario?

And he is in the doghouse with his parents.

How are you running your business? Money is coming in and going out -

Money doesn't come in, no money comes in.

But when he hits an unexpected gold pocket...

..he faces a choice that could make or break his season.

I don't know what to do.

Tony Beets's dredge should have been dismantled weeks ago.

Now he's pushing his men and machines...

..to breaking point.

Risking the dredge's most important part -

its control centre.

Jerry! Tony, it is going to rip the building apart.

At McKinnon Creek, way up north, in the Klondike.

Put a bucket in, Jack.

All eight members of the Hoffman crew are now back

and mining gold rich paydirt in Todd's new higher cut.

These guys are machines.

Andy is kicking ass, the guys are bringing paydirt.

Everything is running good.

We got ourselves a tiger by the tail, let me tell you.

Andy Spinks loads rock trucks.

I am loading dirt out as fast as I can load it, so you can't ask for anything better.

Logan and Kevin haul dirt to the plant.

OK, Logan, let's just keep piling it right there.

And Jack loads paydirt into their wash plant, Little Red.

For a while I was starving for pay, now I am being buried in pay.

Right there, drop it.

With the new equipment that bought Dave a 50% share of the Hoffman operation,

the crew has stripped and stockpiled over 25,000 yards of paydirt in just seven days.

Yeah, Dad, keep going quick.

Faster!

Straight back, good job.

What the frick?

Woah!

Holy...!

Thurber, what's going on?

We've got fines coming out of the tail end.

This is what has your gold. It cannot come out the waste end.

Some of that should be going down the sluice.

We are just shoving too much through, you know.

Jack is feeding too much dirt into Little Red's trommel.

Inside the plant, water jets blast fine gold rich material

off the rocks and into the gold catching sluices.

But if too much paydirt is fed into the trommel, the water jets can't wash off all the gold.

As a result gold bearing fine material pours out the back of the plant with the course tailings.

Fine material in the tailings pile means the Hoffmans are losing gold.

It was puking out both ends up there.

You've got to slow him down, I can see that. He's got to find a happy medium.

Jack, slow down, slow down.

Todd, I am getting a little (BLEEP).

You tell me to speed up, and then you tell me to slow down. Now, what do you want?

Nice and easy, Dad. Slowly drops them in.

This little plant just can't run fast enough.

It is doing its dangdest but it just can only do so many yards.

So it is falling behind.

Andy keeps loading us. Where are we going to put it?

I don't know. Just keep stacking it, I guess.

I have no other solution right now.

I can't run any faster, man, I am trying.

Andy is bringing us four times what we can run in one day.

And then it is starting to stack up.

We have got two more rock trucks coming down the road right now.

This ain't working.

Dad is holding us back. I know.

The maximum we'll be able to push through this year, if we don't break down, is 100,000 yards.

That is going to give us 600oz, 700oz. That is not going to cut it.

I know.

The Hoffmans need to mine at least 800oz of gold just to break even.

They have to find a way to speed up their operation.

What do you want to do, man? What shall we do? I don't know.

16km east, Parker Schnabel is almost halfway through his season

but nowhere near his 2,000oz, $2.4 million goal.

Right now, we're way behind.

2,000oz is 100oz a week

and we just plain are not doing 100oz a week.

That is because this swamp cutting (BLEEP).

It's starting to get a little bit depressing, you know.

We've been running the last few weeks.

We're not even really keeping our heads above water.

We've done everything we can here.

The plant is running 24/7 and the gold is not in the ground.

So, you look at it on paper and you say "Well, why are you there?"

To hit 2,000oz, Parker needed 500oz from the swamp cut in the last five weeks.

But marginal paydirt has only delivered 232.

Parker urgently needs better ground.

Right now I'm heading to the far cut with Gene.

I'm gonna take the excavator down and dig some test holes and see if it looks any more promising.

Last season the far cut yielded $200,000 worth of gold in just four days.

Look at that.

But at the beginning of this season, Parker and Rick hit rock hard permafrost.

That's never been thawed in the last however many thousands of years.

Parker's second season in the Klondike

now hangs on whether or not the midsummer sun has thawed the far cut permafrost.

This is good to see.

Yeah, so this stuff has finally thawed out a bit, which is good.

Now we just need to make sure there's some gold here,

so I'm gonna do some panning.

I mean, this cut was our best cut all last year.

We need good ground right now, and that's a nice pan. 15, 16, 17 flakes.

That tells me we're in the money.

I'm gonna show Gene.

That's a pretty damn good pan.

Looks pretty good. Back open for business? Yeah. Let's do it.

To return to the far cut, Parker will have to split his Scribner Creek operation in two.

At the swamp cut, Chris Doumitt will run the last of the paydirt through the wash plant,

while the dozer, excavators and rock trucks

head over 1km north to the far cut, to begin splitting the remaining over burden.

Having a 2,000oz goal this year means it's absolutely essential that we have the far cut stripped

and ready to rock and roll by the time we get done on the swamp cut,

because we don't have a day to lose sluicing.

Alright, let's do it.

Dammit.

This is just...soup.

You see those seams of ice in there?

Yeah. That's why this is all turning to (BLEEP). Yeah. It's disgusting.

The melting permafrost has turned what should be their best ground into unmineable muck.

All that water right in front of me, that's all just stuff that is melting out of the permafrost.

And it just makes everything it touches just turn right into this black death. Goo.

Hey, can someone come and give me a hand? I think I'm stuck.

Yeah, buddy, I'll be right there.

One of our rock trucks just got stuck and this is just something we can't afford to have...

..have go down on us.

We're just trying to get this cut organised. It's just (BLEEP).

This mud's killing us. So, the trucks are wallowing in the mud.

Dozer's getting stuck everywhere.

It's a mess.

Right, I almost lost this cut once. Can't afford to do that again.

Why around here does it always have to be worst case scenario?

.

.

Told Hoffman has defied the odds and rebuilt his operation from the ground up.

Now, to hit his 8000oz breakeven point, worth nearly $1 million,

Todd needs to make his wash plant run more paydirt.

What's going on, Todd? Hey, buddy.

He's meeting Freddy Dodge, the man who designed Little Red.

It is good to see you, first off. Yeah, no kidding man.

Been a long time, man. Yeah, no kidding. I got a question for you.

You know, Little Red, we are probably getting 60 yards an hour,

70 yards an hour - I need more production out of it.

I need to get to about 120, maybe 130 yards an hour, if possible.

That's not going to happen.

It is just not designed for it.

You are trying to haul a massive load in a Volkswagen by trying to do that.

That was built for the jungle, so we could get around the jungle. I know.

We need a new wash plant.

You've got one option, I've got a plant sitting on trucks two miles out of town right now.

Oh, really? Yes.

Will it do 150 yards an hour?

Should run over 200 yards an hour, Todd. Kidding me?

No, it is high league stuff. It is a big plant.

I've got to be honest, money is short right now

and I probably can't afford it, but I'd love to take a look.

Have a look at it and see what you think.

The only thing is I got a guy right now that wants it in the States

so I have to know within 48 hours.

Tell me what you think. Will do. See you later, Todd. See you.

Todd picks up Jack and Dave and heads straight to see Freddy's wash plant.

Is this it? (BLEEP)

Oh, this thing is huge.

Three decks. You're kidding. No. It's got all the sluices, check this out. Man, it is all set up.

This is a monster.

You know, Todd, this would do it. If you could do this thing, man, this is it.

I don't know what Freddy's asking for it, but I don't think we can afford it.

We're tapped out. Yeah, I don't know. We may be dreaming on this one.

Give him a call, see what Freddy says. I'll see what he'll do.

Hello?

Hey, Freddie, we are standing over here at the plant. What is the price on that?

It'll cost you 300oz, Todd.

I need 100oz up front, and 200oz at the end of the season.

I don't have 100, Freddy, right now, I've got 40.

Todd, I can't just give it to you. That is the best I can do.

I need 100oz in the next 48 hours or it's on a truck headed south.

Alright, I'll call you in two days.

He said, bottom line, his hard costs on this plant are 300.

He'll take 100 down in 48 hours and in 90 days he wants the other 200.

We got 40 in the bank, we got some in the sluice, right now.

That means 60oz?

This cleanup is going to be a big deal.

There is no time to run more dirt.

If there is not already 60oz in the sluicebox, they won't make the 100oz down payment.

You better be praying for a miracle, buddy.

60km south...

..Parker's got visitors.

How are you? Good.

His mum, Nancy, and dad, Roger, have come to check on progress.

Your place looks completely different, honey. Yeah.

Completely. Yeah. It's really kind of beautiful.

But Nancy hasn't driven 1,000km to admire the view.

She manages Parker's money. And it is time for a reality check.